Kickstarter CEO: We'll never sell

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Founders will also not consider implementing equity funding in future, says Perry

The owners of popular crowdfunding website Kickstarter will never sell the company or launch an IPO, the firm’s CEO has claimed.

Speaking at the GigaOM Roadmap conference, as reported by AllthingsD, Perry Chen said he was more interested in building up the company rather than sell it for a profit.

As for the future of the site, the Kickstarter CEO also said that despite legislative efforts in the US to help enable equity crowdfunding, the company would not be allowing developers to offer this.

“We think the most disruptive aspect [of Kickstarter] is the removal of the investment component,” he said.

“People are supporting projects because they want to see them happen. It’s so different than giving money because you want to make a profit.”

To date, more than $405 million has been raised for developers and companies in other industry sectors through Kickstarter, with more than 76,000 projects launched through the site.

Of these, less than half have been successful, with 32,000 hitting their funding goals.

After the recent struggles of some titles such as Haunts: The Manse Macabre, which has experienced development turmoil after the original programmers left the project, there have been some concerns that contributors are not protected enough if a project fails.

Whilst the site does have guidelines that suggest developers will have to pay back investments to contributors if a project is cancelled, Chen stressed that backers should not treat the site as a place to pre-order a game, and should understand the potential pitfalls Kickstarter can bring before investing.

“It’s not Best Buy,” he said.

“You’re supporting somebody at a decently early stage, and you should understand that’s what you’re getting involved in. Delays are not infrequent. It’s really about the creator setting the expectations for backers, and then if they have trouble, being very transparent.”